YUGOSLAVIA: Western Europe Relieved at Milosevic’s Overthrow

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ramesh Jaura

BONN, Oct 6 2000 (IPS) - Western European governments heaved a sigh of relief as Yugoslavia’s opposition, backed by one-day long mass protests, brought an end to President Slobodan Milosevic’s 13-year rule Thursday.

Nearly half a million people stormed the federal parliament, took over state television and the official news agency, during protests to demand that Milosevic accept electoral defeat and step down from power. While the crowds did so, the security forces and the army showed restraint.

Tensions had been rising in the wake of the Sep 24 presidential elections, in which Vojislav Kostunica claimed victory.

On Wednesday, the Federal Constitutional Court that annulled election result and asked for a re-run. A run-off poll had been set for Sunday by the government.

There was no immediate word about the whereabouts of Milosevic, who was reported to have left his residence.

However, there was great optimism that Yugoslavia’s path to “liberation” will not be littered by a bloody civil war.

In fact, designate president Kostunica availed of his first interview in the “liberated” Yugoslav TV to stress that he would not exercise any “triumphalism”.

No revenge would be taken against those who supported the Milosevic regime, Kostunica assured. Likewise, he said his government hand not him over for trial to International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, the Netherlands.

The deposed Yugoslav president has been indicted by ICTY on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the 1999 Kosovo crisis.

While European government officials refrained from commenting, there was awareness of the fact that the US-led and Europe-backed bombing of Serbia to put an end to “ethnic cleansing” against Bosnian Muslims in Kosovo had angered even the opponents of Milosevic. They included Kostunica.

With this in view, western European governments Thursday joined U.S. President Bill Clinton in sending out very cautious messages.

Instead of expressing support for the opposition — branded as “the stooges of the West” — they praised the people on the street who wanted to “liberate” themselves from the Milosevic regime.

In fact, addressing a mass rally in Belgrade, Kostunica said: “We want neither Washington nor Moscow” to interfere in the country’s affairs.

Moscow’s support for Milosevic — though more symbolic in the past months than real — had irritated Yugoslav opposition leaders.

In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he wanted to see an end to Yugoslavia’s international isolation and for the country to develop along democratic lines.

“We are ready to contribute to this country overcoming the current crisis, coming out of international isolation and putting itself firmly on the path of democratic development,” Putin said.

Aware of anger in Yugoslavia at the NATO-led bombings last year, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain was prepared to “extend a hand of friendship”, despite differences that prevailed.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany — a country that has a tenuous relationship with Yugoslavia, rooted in the last World War (1939-45) — said what was happening in Yugoslavia was “an impressive revolution of freedom” which Berlin would support in every possible way.

Earlier, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder assured that “a Yugoslavia in which the government is democratic and human rights are respected would resume its proper place among the countries of Europe.”

Fischer went a step ahead and said that the European Council would decide on Monday in favour of lifting economic sanctions against Yugoslavia. A similar assurance has been given to Kostunica by the French and other governments.

In a television interview, the German foreign minister Thursday also stressed the need to include Yugoslavia in the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, which was set up in June last year in Cologne.

Germany was a driving force behind the pact, which aims at achieving “the objective of lasting peace, prosperity and stability for South Eastern Europe”.

Ahead of the Sep 24 election in Yugoslavia, the Stability Pact’s Special Co-ordinator Bodo Hombach called on the European Union, the Group of 8 club of major industrial nations and others “to hear the voice of the democratic majority in Serbia and take them as partners in planning a better future for Serbia in Europe.”

Serbia had been left behind, Hombach pointed out. Many of its neighbours were negotiating for membership in, or association to, the EU.

Hombach called on the international community to intensify contacts with and help the democratic forces in Serbia — including the independent towns and free media — and take as partners in planning a better future for Serbia those who clearly have the real democratic mandate.

Last Tuesday, Hombach said if Serbia — which together with Montenegro constitutes the present republic of Yugoslavia — joined the South Eastern Europe Stability Pact under a new and democratic leadership, this would not affect the implementation of even a single programme or a project.

If Serbia indeed joined the Pact, the United States would allocate 500 million dollars. Other states had also expressed their willingness to act as donors, Hombach said.

In an attempt to allay fears among smaller countries in the region about Yugoslavia cashing the lion’s share of funds, he said that the financing of all Stability Pact projects had ensured — a total of euro 2.4 billion (some 2 billion U.S. dollars).

A democratic change in the government of Yugoslavia would be immediately followed by the removal of the sanctions by the international community, UN special envoy to the Balkans Carl Bildt added Wednesday.